Showing posts with label Kogako Studio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kogako Studio. Show all posts

Monday, April 28, 2025

Over RequiemZ - Review

 Genre: VN.
Developer/publisher: Kogado/Otomate.
Platform: switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/over_requiemz/
Release date: 17-4-2025
 
I wasn't sure if I was going to get this game and it was literally a last minute decision
but I am glad I did because I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I ever would and it
had a pretty good story more so than a bunch of recent otomate games I played recently.
Also I could probably have finished this sooner rather than later however lately I don't
like it when I burst through games in a week but it lasted almost two weeks for me
so I slowed down my pace just a little bit, the game also is better with breaks
in between due to how intense the writing can be.
 
Pro's
- Interesting setting and complex characters.
- Mostly good pacing, atleast I thought fact side was.
- Gorgeous artwork, pretty consistent art.
- Beautiful music, I found it better than most of otomate's stuff.
- Replay value is high due to scenario split.
- You can completely ignore the dark side and get to enjoy the story with proper romance.
 
Grey area
- There's only one best ending, the other three are either bad ends, a tragic end or subjective good.
 
Con's
- Dorothy's route should've been locked.
- Most choices are meaningless except a handful that decided a branch or end.
 - Dark side can feel a bit drawn out, atleast one felt forced.
- The ending theme did not fit all the endings.

 
 
Over RequiemZ is loosely based on the wizard of oz.
The heroine Yuhiru gets isekai'd to a strange land and meets a bunch of guys
who are all convicted criminals alongside herself for reasons she doesn't get. The world
isn't quite like her own but she still recognizes elements here and there from it.
Due to her black hair and eyes, she is discriminated for it but she's not
the only one as one of the LI has suffered from it as well.
Yuhiru finds solace with a bunch of guys who like herself end up being charged for
crimes they didn't commit. The question remained of whether she can trust them or not. 
This honestly feels like a breath of fresh air. Yuhiru sets out on a journey with them
which really felt like a journey btw, the characters also had good chemistry
but this was mostly the first 5 chapters before it focused more on the LI.
I loved the character interactions, there was a good dose of humor at times as well.
 Even if they were criminals it didn't feel like they were bad atleast not at first
but you could tell there was another side to them so it was exciting to see how it'll play out.
I really loved how the writing could be rather intense, it was hard to get bored
and if I did zone out then the dialogue would snap me back into it.
 
Art looks gorgeous both sprite,CG and backgrounds are very well done.
Music Some BGM's were absolutely stellar I rarely praise this much but they deserve it!
It also set the tone of the scenes well and I like the OP a lot as well.
 
System; its a standard VN however  there's a route split for each character Fact and Dark
Depending on your choices you can tip the scales to either of those and get different endings
but other than that most of the choices were meaningless, it may change a dialogue line or two.
All the endings of which there were four per route were right at the end.
Yea the split sides basically are like this, yes.

Length; A single route would be 15 chapters in total, every guy had a sort of
common route/prelude which lasted for 5 chapters and then it splits into fact or dark
of which both are 5 chapters long.  Nothing seemed to drag on, I thought individually
chapters were short, it still delivered the scenario in a well-paced manner.
My first route was about 7-8 hours in length but depending on your reading
speed it may differ.  Its important to note that both sides are different in tone
from the other so you won't get the same experience twice.
 
I wasn't sure what was up with the choice system maybe that's to decide what ending you get
or if you can make it to the fact or dark. I used a guide so... i'm not sure if selecting a less
than good choice would result in a game over ending and I didn't have the energy to experiment.
Often there would be red choices, I thought that selecting the wrong one would give me
 a bad end but the guide listed none. This game also only has four endings per route.
They were at the end so the bad ones felt more like you reap what you sowed.
Still I think some bad ends may've worked in a type of game like this since
most choices are actually pretty meaningless and add nothing of value except
the ones that decide the route split or the endings at the end of it.
 
 
I liked the general feel of the game but I had so many questions...
like why was the heroine summoned? isn't this judicial system too harsh?!
The early parts of trying to survive outside of the city reminded me of the dark dragon and
the happy hungry bunch from yona of the dawn. The first half of the game felt rather calm
but there were moments of suspense like do you tell a LI the truth of where you came from?
Anyway for the most part the game was very enjoyable, I wanted to get to know the LI
and perhaps more about the world... which was my main motivation to keep playing.
The characters were honestly pretty great, I wanted to know more
about them all, in good and bad ways. Its been a long time
an otome game got that kind of reaction from me.
They all had some sort of underlying trauma and it could seem like the heroine
is a therapist but I thought she was just trying to be a good friend
and a good friend listens to someone elses troubles and doesn't judge.
The fact route tended to resolve issues while the dark route let them fester.
In most other otome games I am like eh a yandere but this game did
not present them the usual way, more like they could become one.
Most of my questions were answered by the time of the final fact route.
 
The fact side pretty much felt like a normal otome game to me...
It focused more on the character development,backstory and current problem
as well as delivering some proper romance as Yuhiru grows closer to the LI.
The dark side reminded me of stuff rejet would come up with
and that would probably be for folks who like yanderes or something.
The main plot in dark took a different turn which... opened up other problems.
So even if you don't like rejet type stuff I could still recommend this game.
I personally thought it was a hit or miss as I could stand Claude's dark route
but Molly's... was a very oh no wtf is this shit?! momento.
I kind of wanted to skip them especially since I came to love Noil a bit too much
still I wanted to see all of his character so I bit the bullet againu. 

 
Yuhiru was pretty okay? I did think she could have been fleshed out more
like she wants to go back home but... ends up finding a handsome man instead.😂
There's only one route where she is actually given a lot more backstory
so if you don't do it she can seem a little less interesting.
That aside I liked her interactions with the love interest and she was very positive and brave
 so I don't think there was much to dislike. She goes through some shit alright
but the worst of it was mostly reserved for the dark side. Which is optional.
If Ceres crawled it was so Yuhiru could fly.
 
Over RequiemZ reminded me a little of 9rip but with more horror/suspense. I wouldn't say
it was on tsukihime/virche level but it had a good dose of violence and blood.
I think without the fact side this game would've been unsatisfying for me
and it may have even steered me away had I tried to do the darkside first.
Other than that it was character focused but most routes would never go into
the same problem twice maybe this was a double edged sword.
Unfortunately, while I was lucky enough to play the most spoilerific route last
otomate may've been better off locking it but it seems they forget
and I am blaming the guy in charge of management.đŸ˜©
Locking Dorothy's route should've been a thing.

In most routes there were more bad outcomes than good ones, like one best end
a sad end and then two endings that I thought were generally leaning to the bad side
but they could be good in a subjective way.  In the case of Noil I think he had three
good outcomes and one bad but two of them  were really subjective and it would be up
to the player to determine that.  Each guy had 4 endings so two for each side, I think
there's a lot of appeal to this otome game though and I was invested quickly in whatever
was happening. The dark side of the route is probably what most are going to come here for
but I'd probably recommend to do the fact side first just for a better understanding
of the LI more so if you care about plot+romance.
 
-- 
TL;DR: Over RequeimZ was more well-rounded, it was just the right length
which was a relief since I think Fuyuzono really rushed itself.  Its just that one route
should've been locked. There was just enough time for both romance, plot/character
development but it can be really intense and can not seem very otome.
Looking at it overall the actual story/character's were really good and given a lot of depth
that I can forgive it. Whatever scenes there were with the LI were very enjoyable but don't come
here expecting only fluff. When I look at Noil's route it spends more time building trust...
however trust is the foundation for everything and without that there can be no love. 
That is why I had no issues with romance. The fact side did feel to me like any other otome game
 Its just that some characters had stuff going on in their dark route that legit made me go nope
so it certainly is not for everyone. There was a moderate amount of violence
and blood, I don't think it was as extreme as Virche. I also see comparisons
and I just don't see it?  Virche made me depressed, Over RequiemZ had me hooked and
despite the dark side being less than good I was excited to go to the next character fact route.
It has intense and suspenseful moments but it also makes room for more calmer ones.
Dark side tended to... have more extreme ends as opposed to the fact side
which just had a tragic and good end.  I thought at times the split sides also complimented
eachother, this was most obvious to me in Noil's maybe because I enjoyed the route.
Noil Bestia was one of my favorite LI along with Kaize&Claude.
I can recommend this otome, more so if you miss rejet-like games and want a story full of suspense.
If I have to be really honest, if you're just here for the story&romance just do the fact side.
I feel the dark side is there for people that like darker stuff, once again its contents is not for everyone.
9/10
Should this get localized? absolutely! there's definitely an audience for this
but even if it doesn't the language difficulty is fairly low.
Lastly, I don't recommend binging or rushing through this game.
Take your time, the scenario is carefully written and going too fast
will likely not make you be able to take it in or enjoy its finer aspects.
 ---
 
There are no route restrictions so you can choose whoever you're interested in.
For my first play I ended up choosing Claude... as I played the routes
it all was so character driven, if I had to recommend anything then you can do
Claude,Molly,Noil and Kaize in any order but Dorothy is best saved for last.
I almost by a hair chose him first and was glad I didn't.

This game is best played without spoilers and its very hard to write about the
characters without spoiling  so if you don't want that then stop reading here.
Its mostly just me doing commentary and a poor digest of whatever happened
while sharing some of my favorite CG's, not all of them of course.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Shiro to Kuro no Alice - Review

 Game: [ç™œăšé»’ăźă‚ąăƒȘă‚č.]
English title: White and black Alice.
Genre: Otome Game Visual Novel.
Developer/Publisher: Otomate/Kogado studio
Platform: PS Vita.
Release date: 2017-06-8

I know that this is like the umpteenth Alice otome game but I was motivated it to get it
and I was mostly interested in Luna's side but that doesn't mean I won't give Airi a chance.
I also figured Shiro to Kuro is otomates biggest entry this year? I mean compared to other titles 
they don't have much this year except a bunch of FD's and this looks the most interesting to me.
Its also funny otomate came up with this after quinrose's demise and got former staff 
like Hisano to sing the opening theme and the mangaka who did the Alice no kuni manga's
adaptation to make a web comic from this, btw I haven't bothered with that so I am going in blind.

Pro's
- Interesting world.
- Decent volume, not too short nor too long.
- Characters are likeable but depends on taste.
- Art is amazing, music fits the scene.
- A skip to the next choice feature (God Bless).

Cons
- The overall story is scattered, one mistake in playorder ruins it even more.
- Too many interesting tidbits are shoved into unvoiced bonus stories/letters
most likely to prevent routes from getting even longer.
- It would be better if the heroines were voiced, since at times they meet they'd have
normal conversations which is just odd when others around them speak.
- Landmines... Airi's side is full of them.



Airi left and Luna right, look similair? they're twins duh...
System wise its typical VN stuff but there's two heroines Airi and Luna who like at norn9
have three romanceable interests so let's go over them real quick to avoid confusion.
After the prologue and common part of each girl you'll be able to select a route
which is of fairly decent length it never felt that rushed it really takes its time
but honestly there might be a couple of boring moments here and there.
  Since otomate is stupid this time and didn't give us a recommended play order 
I went in blind and uncovered a whole plot behind the scenes on my first play.😅💩💩💩
Oh good joy otomate you even delayed this game but it was too hard
to give us a recommended order or put an enforced playorder?oh well...
Okay each route still has its own fair share of spoilers for you to find out which
is totally normal but its mostly selfcontained character stuff, one thing is for sure
you won't find out everything just doing one route nor is there a real true path its just Snow
having the best story conclusion so it should be done last if you care about that.
 Minette's route is most disconnected from overall plot so best to do first and well Rain was pretty painful early on but made more sense at the end of the route so best to not do him too late in your play order. Nello ahaha he's fine midway but watch out for landmines! definitely not last.
Jack route was super enjoyable so that's why I recommend it for last even if
Snow's black happy end is arguable the best in terms of story completeness.
Feel free to decide your own order but I think this works?
I recommend this order:
Airi: Minette > Rain > Luna: Kanon > Airi: Nello > Luna: Snow / Jack.
 
 White side: Airi - Rain, Minette, Nello.
Black side: Luna - Snow, Jack, Kanon.
Airi is the heroine of white world who is a candidate for the next queen because
her blood will save the country of black, Luna the current queen and heroine of black world 
suffered a coup'de etat after sentencing someone which was seen as too cruel
so for her own safety (and sanity)Luna was forced to flee to the white world 
while Airi is forced to take her place in black world note that despite Airi following
Rain on that rainy day at that point she doesn't want to have anything 
to do with the queen stuff and will actively ask people how to get out, of course Luna 
wants nothing more but to go back to black world but goes along with Snow
turns out they throw some magic and Luna seems to fit right into Airi's place... 
Well they do look alike since they're twins after all.
The two do need time to adjust to their new environment and Luna is really
clueless about seemingly normal stuff, OK you get the basic picture now lol.
 There's also some caste system and blood sucking mechanic like the guys from white side
get a boost if they suck Airi's blood and on the other side Luna needs to suck the guys blood.😓
Of course Luna also gets her blood sucked since ... because uh plot?
Also since the guys are no vampires how do they actually bite? since you know lack of fangs...
Before playing I thought otomate is grasping for straws here đŸ˜„ but whatever let me explain
its definitely not just fanservice dialover style like for example when Rain got injured
Airi cut her own finger so he nibbled at it so Rain could regain his strength.
See its important to the story so stop complaining its just fanservice...
here come the blood donation jokes by me making my way through the routes. (just kidding)
Sadly I don't like the idea of biting a guy... let alone bitten by them... so its a miss for me. 


Minor spoiler in the next bit so feel free to glance over this.
 However there was one bit in Snow's route that irked me, anyone sensitive to self harm of cutting
themselves may want to need this warning but Snow's so sweet of stopping a selfish Luna
wanting attention or basically forcing him to drink her blood even if he said no.
The negative bit there might be easy to over look, still I had to mention it because sensitive topic.
end spoiler.


Like with all otome games you don't have to like everyone it all depends on personal taste really.
Minette, the mysterious flirty guy who showers you with affection and definitely not shady(he is).
Rain, the mysterious cold and distant but definitely doesn't mean to be...
Kanon, the sharp-tongued tsunderella.
 Snow, the caringly sweet and gentle type.
Jack, the shy yet cute type of guy who obviously is interested in the protag.
Nello, the two faced guy but totally a good boy atleast you'd think.

The only thing otomate seems to have recycled is some aesthetic from code:realize do note that
I am mainly talking about the text box here so don't misunderstand me.
Other than that everything looks nice and art in general like backgrounds are all pretty.
It seems they had a lot of budget, plenty of side characters and routes do not overlap
with others so all is good! but the mouths do not move, honestly speaking this is no big deal.
It also has its own save/load screen and I do not remember many VN on ps vita
that actually have a unique save/load screen except maybe Karin or some of Rejet's games.
Its nice to see otomate break the mold from the old see-through save screen
but to me it seems a possible english release with pc port is inevitable now.
(I hope it happens... along with Tierblade of course.)
The gorgeous save/load screen.

Well here is the opening movie...certainly has its charm.

The game is relatively short paced, most of the time there's ALMOST no boring moment
except the court and some school scenes but yeah the reason for that is obvious really.
Sometimes it does get longer than I thought it would be, some ends are short yet others are longer..
This only really got on my nerves when I was on Minette's because I wanted to be done, lol.
It is of decent volume routes should be around 6-7 hours or more, I guess
if you count the other ends its a little longer in the route but I never change the speed
of automode since if its any faster I can never read it before it moves on to next line -_-
I think Nello's route was definitely the longest out of all? maybe cuz prologue.
All this depends on reading speed but this should be the average either way nothing felt rushed except
some endings, this visual novel was deceptively long or longer than I had thought it would be.😅

In short...
For those wondering if Airi will be disappointing or dumb as a heroine the answer is I can't truly answer in the common route she has a surprising proactive personality of wanting to go back
but she's a little meek, too pure and too accepting of the guys flaws in the white routes.
One could say she has the worst love interests and she's the average good girl etc.
Some may find Airi generic though... and I guess she is compared to Luna.
Luna on the other hand turned out to be really cute since she doesn't know a lot of normal things
but she's still an oujou-sama and won't hesitate to speak her mind most of the time
but she could be a little selfish or bitchy I guess but its miles better.
There's a fair amount of mystery, just do not do Nello's route first! nor last
or else you'll be left with a bad after taste that probably will ruin it for you.
 Each route is fairly self contained but Nello has a good chunk of a sub plot that runs in the background but who the bad guy is slightly changes depending on route.
Some parts are slow at first but there's enough going on that shows the heroine
 and the boy of your choice get closer which all in all was enjoyable considering length.
The time the two spend together was charming even tho there's not much else going on untill
x character comes in to remind you of stuff, which in some routes ruined the mood but yeah story.
In the end it balances out, for the most part the scenes never really drag still there are a few where I was like oh come on get on with it, I guess each vn may have a couple of boring moments and shirotokuro is no exception. Atleast we get to choose the guys right after the prologues which is a
blessing really, said prologues are there to help decide who you go for but I still think
this game would have benefitted from some sort of restriction for available love interests.

Its also nice Luna has girls to talk to about stuff like guys and more since she
is totally clueless about most stuff which leads to some hilarious scenes.
Sadly with Airi that's not so much the case but she used to do that all the time...
honestly its sad Airi literally gets the worst boys.
People who like alice related things may even enjoy it more, there's more than one
outcome to the routes and variations on some endings depending on choice
either way I can recommend Shiro to Kuro no Alice, its interesting in its own way
but no replacement for Heart no Kuni no Alice., this is probably otomate's biggest release
this year next to chouchou jiken & not counting sequel/FD, they really don't have much new title.
But if I had to be really honest only black side was worth it for me...